Course description and registration information:
Please make sure that you register for this course on stud.ip.

This seminar is about practical and theoretical aspects of English pronunciation. Its most important goal is to help you improve your English pronunciation. In order to achieve this, we will explore how the sounds of the English language are produced and how they differ from the sounds of the German language. You will learn how to transcribe English sounds according to the accent “Received Pronunciation” (called “BBC Pronunciation” in the pronunciation dictionary EPD18) or “General American”. This will increase your awareness for the details of English pronunciation and will enable you to check and work on your own pronunciation. Those of you who will be teachers will also discover useful tools for supporting their students. Special attention will be drawn to common pronunciation mistakes of German speakers in English. This extends not only to the production of vowels and consonants, but also to prosody. We will deal with word and sentence stress, as well as common intonation patterns in English. Special features of English connected speech like assimilation and linking will be explored. Pronunciation differences between “RP”/”BBC Pronunciation” and “General American” will be explained and further varieties of English will be introduced.

Two tutorials will be offered for this seminar: Transcription and Pronunciation Practice. Attendance is highly recommended.

The exam will take place during our last session (see 'Ablaufplan').

Requirements for admission (“Zulassungsvoraussetzungen”): none